Hackers leak Assad's astonishing office emails

Hundreds of emails from the office of Bashar al Assad have been leaked by the
hacker group Anonymous.

The now-infamous Barbara Walters interview with President Assad

By Phoebe Greenwood, Tel Aviv

4:30PM GMT 07 Feb 2012

The group used the simple password "1234" to log into the mail accounts of several of the Syrian president's closest aids.

The leaked documents, a selection of which are published in full on the website of Israeli daily Ha'artz, include a series of emails between Assad's media adviser Bouthaina Shaaban and Sheherazad Jaafari – a press attaché at the Syrian UN mission – briefing the president in advance of his now infamous interview with Barbara Walters in which he repeatedly denied that Syrian civilians were being killed by government troops.

Basing her advice on "major research" she conducted into US media coverage of the Syrian uprising, Jaafari advised Mr Assad: "It is hugely important and worth mentioning that 'mistakes' have been done in the beginning of the crises.

"American psyche can be easily manipulated when they hear that there are 'mistakes' done and now we are 'fixing it'."

She continued: "Its [sic] worth mentioning also what is happening now in Wall Street and the way the demonstrations are been [sic] suppressed by police men, police dogs and beatings."

Jaafari's lengthy email, sent ten days before the Walters interview, warns that the US media is preoccupied with the violent nature of the government crackdown: "They think that bloodshed is done by the government to attack the 'innocent civilians'".

"Syria doesn't have a policy to torture people, unlike the U.S.A We can use Abu Ghraib in Iraq as an example," she adds.

Among other leaked emails is a correspondence between former British MP George Galloway and Shaaban, who is among Assad's closest advisors. Galloway requests the use of Syria's Latkia port as a departure point for Gaza flotilla the Mavi Mara.

"I am writing once again to ask for Syria's cooperation although I do no doubt it for one moment. Syria is as I have often said is [sic] the last castle of Arab dignity," Galloway writes in August 2010.

Shaaban responded within three days welcoming Galloway's suggestion, enthusing, "God bless your amazing efforts and I will be honoured to be part and parcel of it."

The astonishing emails have emerged as Assad's troops renew their bombardment of Homs, Syria's third largest city.

Opposition activists say the fresh assault has been waged after 95 people were killed there on Monday. Sustained shelling by government forces is thought to have killed at least 200 more on Friday night.